单词 | 已经 |
释义 | 〔gotcha〕Used to indicate understanding or to signal the fact of having caught or defeated another.我了解你的意思了!;抓到你了!;我赢你了!(I've got you!):用在表示了解或是传达已经捉到或者击败他人的事实〔medium〕The etymologically plural formmedia is often used as a singular to refer to a particular means of communication,as inThis is the most exciting new media since television. This usage is widely regarded as incorrect;medium is preferred. A stronger case can be made in defense of the use ofmedia as a collective term, as inThe media has not shown much interest in covering the issue. As with the analogous wordsdata and agenda, the originally plural form has begun to acquire a sense that departs from that of the singular: used as a collective term,media denotes an industry or community. Thus the example sentence given here would not be appropriately paraphrased asNo medium has shown much interest in covering the issue, which suggests that the disinclination abides in the means of communication itselfrather than in its practitioners.Ifmedia follows the pattern of data and agenda, this singular use may become entirely acceptable someday.But despite its utility,many people still regard it as a grammatical error.语源复数形式media 常用作单数, 用来指传播手段中的某一种,例如在下面这是自电视出现以来最激动人心的新式传媒 的句子中。 许多人都认为这一用法是不正确的;他们还是喜欢用medium 这一单数形式。 我们能提出更为有力的例子来为media 作为集合名词的用法进行辩护, 如下面的句子:大众传媒对于报道这一事件没有表现出多大兴趣 。 正如类似于原为复数形式的其他两个词data 和 agenda 已经开始具有其单数形式的含义: 用作集合名词的media 现在则可以指传播工业或共同体。 这样的话,我们刚才给出的例句就不能改成如下形式:没有传媒对报道这一事件表现出很大兴趣 , 因为这样改动后,这句话所表示的是传播工具本身的不愿意,而不是业者的不愿意。如果media 也象 data 和 agenda 那样, 那么它作为单数形式的用法总有一天会被完全接受的。但是不管它的实用性大小,许多人仍将其视为一个语法错误〔claustrophobic〕Clinically speaking,claustrophobic denotes a pathological disposition to feel terror in closed spaces. But like other terms from clinical psychology (narcissism and schizophrenic, for example), the word has been applied more loosely in general usage:at first to refer to a temporary feeling of being closed in (as in 客观地说,claustrophobic 表示了一种在封闭空间里感到恐惧的病理倾向。 但象其它来自临床病理学的词汇(例如narcissism 和 schizophrenic )一样, 该词已经被应用于更广泛的普遍意义了:首先是指被关禁时的短暂感受(如 〔persuade〕"He had prevailed upon the king to spare them" (Daniel Defoe).Toconvince is to persuade by the use of argument or evidence: “他已经劝导国王赦免他们了” (丹尼尔·迪福)。Convince 指通过使用论证和证据来劝服: 〔copacetic〕We know very little about the origin of the wordcopacetic, meaning "excellent, first-rate.” Is its origin to be found in Italian, in the speech of southern Black people, in the Creole French dialect of Louisiana, or in Hebrew?John O'Hara, who used the word inAppointment in Samarra, later wrote thatcopacetic was "a Harlem and gangster corruption of an Italian word.” O'Hara went on to say, "I don't know how to spell the Italian,but it's something like copacetti.” His uncertainty about how to spell the Italian is paralleled by uncertainty about how to spellcopacetic itself. Copacetic has been recorded with the spellings copasetic, copasetty, copesetic, copisettic, and kopasettee. The spelling is now more or less fixed, however, ascopacetic or copasetic, even though the origin of the word has not been determined.The Harlem connection mentioned by O'Hara would seem more likely than the Italian,sincecopacetic was used by Black jazz musicians and is said to have been Southern slang in the late 19th century. Ifcopacetic is Creole French in origin, it would also have a Southern homeland.According to this explanation,copacetic came from the Creole French word coupersètique, which meant "able to be coped with,” "able to cope with anything and everything,” "in good form,”and also "having a healthy appetite or passion for life or love.”Those who support the Hebrew or Yiddish origin ofcopacetic do not necessarily deny the Southern connections of the word. One explanation has it that Jewish storekeepers used the Hebrew phrasekol bĕṣedeq, "all with justice,”when asked if things were O.K. Black children who were in the store as customers or employees heard this phrase ascopacetic. No explanation of the origin ofcopacetic, including the ones discussed here, has won the approval of scholars, as is clearly shown by the etymology ofcopacetic in the first volume of the Dictionary of American Regional English, published in 1985: "Etym unknown.” 我们对copacetic 这个词的词源所知甚少,其意为“极好的、一流的”。 它是起源于意大利语、南方黑人口语、路易斯安那州的克里奥耳人的法语方言还是希伯来语?约翰·奥哈拉在撒马拉的约会 中用到这个词, 他后来写到copacetic 是“变成哈莱姆黑人居住区和强盗土语的意大利词”。 奥哈拉还说,“我不知道原来的意大利词是如何拼写的,但是有点象copacetti"。与他不敢肯定如何拼写这个意大利词一样,他对copacetic 一词本身的拼法也不敢肯定。 Copacetic 曾经被拼写成 copasetic, copasetty, copesetic, copisettic 以及 kopasettee。 现在它的拼法多少已经固定成copacetic 或 copasetic, 尽管这个词的词源仍未被确定。奥哈拉所提及的它与哈莱姆黑人居住区的关系看上去比它和意大利语的关系更有可能,因为黑人爵士歌手曾用过copacetic 这个词,并且据说在19世纪晚期它曾是南方的俚语。 如果copacetic 在词源上是克里奥耳人的法语, 那么它也是从南方来的。根据这一解释,copacetic 来自克里奥耳人法语中 coupersetique 一词, 表示“有能力与人竞争的”、“有能力处理任何事情及一切事情的”、“以好的方式的”,还表示“对生活或爱情有正常的欲望或激情的”。那些认为copacetic 来自希伯来语或意第绪语的人并不一定否认这个词与南方的关系。 一种解释认为,犹太店主们在被询问是否一切都好时用了希伯来语中的短语kol bĕṣedeq 即“一切太平”之意, 在店里作工或买东西的黑人儿童将这个短语听成了copacetic。 在关于copacetic 词源的解释中,包括以上讨论的这些,没有一种得到学者们的认可, 这一点我们可以在美国方言英语辞典 (1985年出版)第一册关于 copacetic 一词的词源解释中清楚地看到:“词源不知” 〔shortlist〕A list of preferable items or candidates that have been selected for final consideration, as in making an award or filling a position.最后侯选人名单:一个已经被选为进行最后考虑的更好的事物或候选人的名单,比如在颁发奖项或填补空缺职位时〔tyranny〕"I have sworn . . . eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man"(Thomas Jefferson)“我已经发过誓…永远反抗以任何形式对人类思想施行的暴政”(托马斯·杰弗逊)〔preoccupied〕Already used and therefore unavailable for further use. Used of taxonomic names.已占用的:已经使用因而不能再作他用的。用于分类学名称〔give〕We had given the dog up as lost.最后我们当那只狗已经走失了而不再存有指望〔gutter〕Certain household words have proved important as markers for major U.S. dialect boundaries.The channels along the edge of a roof for carrying away rainwater (normally referred to in the plural) are variously known aseaves spouts or eaves troughs in New England and the Great Lakes states, spouting or rainspouts in New Jersey, eastern Pennsylvania, and the Delmarva Peninsula, andgutters from Virginia southward. The transition points mark unusually clear boundaries for the three major dialect areas—Northern, Midland, and Southern—traditionally acknowledged by scholars of American dialects.Atypically, Southerngutters seems to have become the standard U.S. term. 某些常用词作为区分美国各主要方言的标志是非常重要的。在新英格兰和五大湖区,这种装在屋顶边缘用来排走雨水的沟槽(一般都是用作复数)被叫做eaves spouts 或 eaves troughs , 而在新泽西,宾夕法尼亚州东部和德马华群岛被叫做spouting 或 rainspouts , 弗吉尼亚以南人们把它称为gutters 。 这些转变表明了美国方言三大区域通常中比较清楚的边界,这三个地区是北部,中部和南部地区,这通常已为美国的方言学者所确认。而南方人使用的gutters 似乎已经成为美国英语中正规的名称,这种情况是不太常见的 〔orgy〕The wordorgy has become connected in the minds of many of us with unrestrained sexual activity, but its origins are much less licentious.We can trace the word as far back as the Indo-European rootwerg-, meaning "to do"and the source of our wordwork. Greekorgia, "secret rites, worship,” also comes from the rootwerg-, by way of the form.worg-. The Greek word was used with reference to the worship and the ritespracticed in the worship of various deities,such as Orpheus and Dionysus.The word in Greek did not denote sexual activity,although this was a part of some of the various rites.The rites of Dionysus, for example, included only music, dancing, drinking, and the eating of animal sacrifices.Having passed through Latin and Old French into Englishthe wordorgy is first recorded in English with reference to the secret rites of the Greek and Roman religions in 1589. It is interesting to note that the word is first recorded with its modern sense in 18th-century English and perhaps in 17th-century French.Whether this speaks to a greater licentiousness in society or not must be left to the historian,but certainly the religious nature of the word has gone into eclipse.单词orgy 已经以不加节制的性行为的概念深植于我们许多人的头脑之中, 但它的原意却并非是很放荡的。我们可以追溯该词到印欧的词根werg- 当中, 意思是“做”,并且是我们work 一词的来源。 希腊语orgia, “秘密仪式,崇拜”, 也来源于词根werg-, 形式为worg- 。 希腊语中用其指崇拜以及一些仪式,这些仪式用于表达对各神明的崇拜,比如俄耳甫斯和狄俄尼索斯。该词在希腊语中并不是表示性行为,尽管性行为也是各种仪式中的一个部分。例如,狄俄尼索斯的仪式中仅仅包括音乐、舞蹈、饮酒和吃祭祀动物。从拉丁语和古法语转到英语,orgy 这一词在1589年首次在英文有记载表示希腊和罗马秘密宗教仪式含义。 有趣的是,该词早在18世纪也许17世纪就已有其现代意义的首次记载了。不论它是不是指社会中的一种大型的狂欢节(这是历史学家的事了),有一点是非常明确的,那就是这个词的宗教本质已经逐渐消失了〔literate〕For most of its long history in English,literate has meant only "familiar with literature,” or more generally, "well-educated, learned";it is only during the last hundred years that it has also come to refer to the basic ability to read and write.Its antonymilliterate has an equally broad range of meanings: anilliterate person may be incapable of reading a shopping list or perhaps may only be unable to grasp an allusion to Shakespeare or Keats.The termfunctional illiterate is often used to describe a person who can read or write to some degree, but below a minimum level required to function in even a limited social situation or job setting.More recently, the meanings of the wordsliteracy and illiteracy have been extended from their original connection with reading and literature to any body of knowledge. For example, "geographic illiterates" cannot identify the countries on a map,and "computer illiterates" are unable to use a word-processing system.None of these uses ofliteracy or illiteracy are incorrect, but it might be preferable to use another word in instances where the context does not make the meaning clear.在英语悠久的历史中,literate 大部分时期只表示“精通文学的”或更概括一些, 指“受过良好教育的,有学问的”;仅仅是在上个世纪它才开始表示读和写的基本能力。它的反义词illiterate 有着同样广泛的意义: 一个illereare 的人也许连张购物单都不会读, 或许只是不理解莎士比亚或济慈的典故。functional illiterate 一词用于描写一个具有一定程度的读写能力, 但还不到甚至在一个有限的社会环境或工作环境中运用语言所须的最低水平。最近,literacy 和 illiteracy 这两词的含义已经从它们原先与阅读和文学的联系扩展到与任何一种知识的联系。 例如,一个“地理盲”不会在地图上寻找国家,而一个“计算机盲”不会使用文字信息处理系统。literacy 和 illiteracy 的这些用法都是正确的, 但是当上下文可能导致意义混淆时还是用其它词更好一些〔killed〕Of, relating to, or containing microorganisms or infectious agents that have been inactivated so as to be incapable of causing infection:被消灭的;功能丧失的:包含已经停止活动并无法造成感染的微生物或与其相关的:〔aware〕I am aware that Congress has passed the legislation.我知道议会已经通过了立法。〔mutual〕Mutual is uncontroversially used to describe a reciprocal relationship between two or more things, in which use it can be paraphrased by expressions involvingbetween or each other. Thustheir mutual animosity means "their animosity for each other" or "the animosity between them,” anda mutual defense treaty is one in which each party agrees to come to the defense of the other. Butmutual is also widely used where one might expect "common,” as inThe bill serves the mutual interests of management and labor and particularly in the expressionour mutual friend, which was widespread even before Charles Dickens used it as the title of a novel.Critics have often objected to this use,but it is well established in reputable writing.However,mutual in this latter sense is reserved to describe relations that hold between two or more specific parties and a third person or thing. It cannot be used as a substitute forcommon in the sense "general": Mutual 毫无争议地被用来描述两者或者更多事物之间的相互关系, 可以用一些包括between 或 each other 的表达来解释。 因此他们相互的敌意 意思为“他们彼此之间产生的敌意”或者“他们之间的敌意”, 相互防御条约 意为一个政党同意帮助另一政党进行防御的条约。 但是Mutual 也广泛地用来表示“共同的”, 就象在这个议案满足劳资双方的需要。 特别是在短语我们共同的朋友, 甚至在查理·狄更斯把它作为一本小说名之前就已经广泛应用。评论家们一直以来常常反对这种用法,但是在规范的写作中它已被完全确定下来了。但是mutual 后来产生的意思被用来描述两个或者更多特定元素及物和第三者之间的关系。 当意为“普遍的”时,它不能代替common 来表述“总体”的含义: 〔long〕As long as you're up, get me a drink.既然你已经起来了,给我弄点喝的〔everyday〕"It was not an isolated, violent episode. It had become part of the everyday"(Sherry Turkle)“这不是一个孤立的暴力事件,它已经成为日常中的一部分”(谢里·蒂尔克)〔avocado〕The history ofavocado takes us back to the Nahuatl (the language of the Aztecs) word ahuacatl, "fruit of the avocado tree" or "testicle.”The wordahuacatl was compounded with others, as inahuacamolli, meaning "avocado soup or sauce,” from which the Spanish-Mexican wordguacamole derives. In trying to pronounceahuacatl, the Spanish who found the fruit and its Nahuatl name in Mexico came up with aguacate, but other Spanish speakers substituted the formavocado for the Nahuatl word becauseahuacatl sounded like the early Spanish word avocado (now abogado ), meaning "lawyer.” In borrowing the Spanishavocado, first recorded in English in 1697 in the compound avogato pear ( with a spelling that probably reflects Spanish pronunciation),we have lost many of the traces of the more interesting Nahuatl word.词avocado 的历史将我们带回那瓦特尔语(阿兹特克人的语言)单词 ahuacatl, “鳄梨树的果实”或“睾丸”。单词ahuacatl 与其它词结合, 如ahuacamolli 表示“鳄梨汤或调味汁,” 西班牙-墨西哥语单词guacamole 即源于此。 当试图读出ahuacatl 时,西班牙人发现了鳄梨果实及其在墨西哥的那瓦特尔语名称并提出了 aguacate , 但另一些讲西班牙语的人以avocado 替代了这个那瓦特尔语单词, 因为ahuacatl 的发音听起来象早期西班牙单词 avocado, (现在的 abogado ),表示“律师。” 英语中首次借用这个西班牙单词avocado, 记录于1697年,在复合词 鳄梨 ( 其拼写可能反映了西班牙语发音),我们已经失落了很多更有趣的那瓦特尔语单词的踪迹〔handy〕Readily accessible:已经准备好的:〔seedbed〕A bed of soil cultivated for planting seeds.苗床:已经耕好用来播种的土床〔be〕Traditional grammar requires the nominative form of the pronoun in the predicate of the verbbe : It is I (not me ); That must be they (not them ), and so forth. Even literate speakers of Modern English have found the rule difficult to conform to,but the stigmatization ofIt is me is by now so deeply lodged among the canons of correctness that there is little likelihood that the construction will ever be entirely acceptable in formal writing.Adherence to the traditional rule in informal speech, however, has come to sound increasingly pedantic,and begins to sound absurd when the verb is contracted, as inIt's we. · The traditional rule creates particular problems when the pronoun followingbe also functions as the object of a verb or preposition in a relative clause, as in It is not them/they that we have in mind when we talk about "crime in the streets" nowadays, where the plural pronoun serves as both the predicate ofis and the object of have. In this example, 57 percent of the Usage Panel preferred the nominative formthey, 33 percent preferred the accusativethem, and 10 percent accepted both versions.But H.W. Fowler, like other authorities, argued that the use of the nominative here is an error caused by "the temptation . . . to assume, perhaps from hearingIt is me corrected to It is I, that a subjective [nominative] case cannot be wrong after the verb to be. ” Writers can usually find a way to avoid this problem: They are not the ones we have in mind, We have someone else in mind, and so on. See Usage Note at I 1we 传统语法要求系动词谓语中的代词用主格形式be : It is I (而不是 me ); That must be they (而不是 them ),等等。 即使现代英语有文化的人也发现很难遵守这个规则,而It is me 的烙印现在已深刻地印入了判断是否正确的准则之中, 以致很少有可能使这种用法在正式书面语中被完全接受。但是在非正式讲话中奉行传统规则已经日益变得象在卖弄学问。并且当系动词被缩减时,就象在It's we 中一样,听起来反而象是不合语法的。 当代词跟在be 后面做动词宾语或做关系从句中的介语宾语时,传统的规则就象在 当我们谈到当今“街上的犯罪”时,他们不是我们心中所想的那些人, 句中复数代词同时充当is 的宾语和 have 的宾语。 在这个例子中57%的用法使用小组更喜欢用主格形式they, 33%更喜欢用宾格形式them, 而10%则两种都接受。但是象其他的权威一样,H.W.福勒争论道,在这里用主格是一个错误,它之所以错是因为“多半听到了It is me 都被改正成 It is I 而拿不定主意,以为主格的情况在动词 to be 后面不可能错。” 作家们常常能够找到一个办法来避免这个问题: 他们不是我们所想的人,我们脑子里想的是另一些人等等 参见 I1we〔poison〕The phrasepoison potion besides being alliterative also consists of doublets, that is, two words that go back ultimately to the same source in another language.The source for both words is Latinpōtiō, which meant "the act of drinking, a drink, or a liquid dose, as of a medicine or poison.”Our wordpotion retains the form of the Latin word (actually the form of the stem pōtiōn- ) and the "dose" sense, although it passed through Old French (pocion ) on its way to Middle English ( pocion ), first recorded in a work composed around 1300.In Old Frenchpocion is a learned borrowing, one that was deliberately taken from Latin in a form corresponding to the Latin form.But the Latin word had also passed through Vulgar Latin into Old French in the different formpoison. This word meant "beverage,” "liquid dose,” and also "poison beverage, poison.”The wordpoison is first recorded in Middle English in a work composed around 1200. Poison potion 这一词组除了押头韵外还是由同源异形词构成的, 也就是两词最终可归结到另一种语言中的同一本源。这两个词的来源都是拉丁词potio , 意为“喝的行为、一种饮品或一定的液体剂量,如药或毒药。”我们今天所使用的potion 保留了这一拉丁词的形式(实际上是词干 potion- 的形式)和“药剂”的意思, 虽然它是经由古法语(pocion )传入中古英语的( pocion ), 该中古英语记录最早见于1300年左右著成的一部著作中。在古法语中pocion 是一个学术性的借词, 该词是以一种和其拉丁文形式对应的形式主动从拉丁文中借用的。但这一拉丁词也已经以另一种形式通过俗拉丁语,即poison ,传入古法语。 这个词意为“饮料、”“液体剂量”以及“毒性的饮料、毒药。”Poison 这个词最早是在一部大约在1200年写成的著作中记进中古英语的。 〔senile〕In earlier writings one finds phrases such as "asenile maturity of judgment" and "green and vigorous senility, ” demonstrating that these two words have not always been burdened with their current negative connotations. Senile and senility are examples of pejoration, the process by which a word's meaning changes for the worse over time.Even thoughsenile (first recorded in 1661) and senility (first recorded in 1778) initially had neutral senses such as "pertaining to old age,” it is probable that the weakness (in particular the mental weakness) that sometimes accompanies old age eventually caused negative senses to predominate.Certainly some pejorative associations were present in Latinsenīlis, "relating to an old man, aged,” the ultimate source of both words, and in related Latin words such assenēscere, which could mean "to deteriorate with age.” But it seems that pejorative associations have taken over these words in English through general usage,perhaps because average life expectancy has risen steadily over the years.在较早的文学作品中人们可以找到形如“判断力Senile(老练) 成熟”和“精力旺盛的有魄力的 Senility(老态龙钟) ”的短语,表明这两个词一直没有表示他们流行的消极的含义。 Senile 和 senility 是词义转贬的范例, 即一个词的意思随时间变化变得越来越坏。尽管senile (首次记载于1661年)和 senility (首次记载于1778年)最初具有中性的意义,例如“关于老年的”, 可能是伴随老年出现的衰弱(特别是智力衰弱)最终导致了反面的意思居支配地位。当然有一些词义转贬的联系表现在拉丁文中的senilis (“关于老人的,老年的”),是这两个词的最早的词源, 和与之相关的拉丁词如senecer ,意为“随年纪恶化”。 但是看起来在英语中通过广泛的使用词义转贬的联系已经取代了这些词,可能是由于平均估计寿命随时代发展稳步上升〔dialogue〕In recent yearsthe verb sense ofdialogue meaning "to engage in an informal exchange of views" has been revived, particularly with reference to communication between parties in institutional or political contexts.Although Shakespeare, Coleridge, and Carlyle used it,this usage today is widely regarded as jargon or bureaucratese.For example, 98 percent of the Usage Panel rejects the sentence 近些年来,dialogue 的“进行非正式的意见交换”的动词含意已经被修改了, 特别在指关于机构或政治方面党派之间的交往时。尽管莎士比亚,科尔里奇,卡莱尔用过它,但是今天这种用法普通被认为难懂或者是一种官腔。例如:百分之九十八的用法专题使用小组的成员拒绝这种句子 〔mood〕"All which had been done . . . was the effect not of humor, but of system" (Edmund Burke).“所有已经做过的…不是情绪而是制度的结果” (爱德蒙·伯克)。〔nationalize〕"His high profile on such issues as abortion . . . has already begun to nationalize his image"(Kenneth L. Woodward)“他在像堕胎这样的争论中的高姿态…已经使他的形象国家化”(肯尼思L.伍德沃德)〔pledge〕A person who has been accepted for membership in a fraternity or similar organization and has promised to join but has not yet been initiated.立誓入会的人:已经被兄弟会或类似的组织接受为会员而且立誓加入,但仍尚未入会的人〔attainment〕Something, such as an accomplishment or achievement, that is attained.成就,造诣,才能:已经得到某物,如技艺或业绩〔outlive〕a regulation that has outlived its usefulness.已经没用却仍然存在的规则〔Sogdian〕The extinct Middle Iranian language of this people, known chiefly from texts and inscriptions dating from the second to the ninth centuriesa.d. 索特语:索特人所讲已经失传的伊朗中部语言,目前所知主要为可追溯至公元 第二至第九世纪的文字及铭刻 〔adolescent〕The adolescent grows up to become the adult.The wordsadolescent and adult that refer to these two stages in the human life cycle ultimately come from forms of the same Latin word, adolēscere, meaning "to grow up.” The present participle ofadolēscere, adolēscēns, from which adolescent derives, means "growing up,” while the past participleadultus, the source of adult, means "grown up.” Appropriately enough,adolescent, first recorded in English in a work written perhaps in 1440, seems to have come into the language beforeadult, first recorded in a work published in 1531. 青少年成长为成年人。adolescent 及 adult 这两个词都表示人类生命循环中的两个阶段,并且始终都来自于同一个拉丁词 adolescere 的不同形式,意为“成长”。 现在分词形式的adolescere--adolescens 产生出 adolesent ,表示“正在成长的”, 而其过去分词adultus 则为 adult 的语源,意为“已经长大的”。 很恰当地是,adolescent 约于1440年首次用于英语作品中, 似乎比首次于1531年刊登在一作品中的adult 一词要早出现在英语语言中 〔already〕By this or a specified time; before:早已,已经:到现在为止或到某一特点为止;先前:〔weak〕"We, who were the tall pine of the forest, have become a feeble plant and need your protection" (Red Jacket). “我们,森林中的高大松树,已经变成虚弱无力的植物,需要你们的保护” (莱德·杰克特)。〔paper〕One or more sheets of paper bearing writing or printing, especially:文件:一张或多张已经书写或印刷的纸张,尤指:〔fiction〕"The latest fiction" to most people means the latest novels or storiesrather than the most recently invented pretense or latest lie.All three senses of the wordfiction point back to its source, Latin fictiō, "the action of shaping, a feigning, that which is feigned.” Fictiō in turn was derived from fingere, "to make by shaping, feign, make up or invent a story or excuse.” Our first instance offiction, recorded in a work composed around 1412, was used in the sense "invention of the mind, that which is imaginatively invented.”It is not a far step from this meaning to the sense "imaginative literature,” first recorded in 1599.“最新的小说”对大多数人来说是指最新的小说或故事,而不是指最新捏造出的谎言。Fiction 这一词的所有的三个意思都追溯到拉丁语中的词源 fictio ,“假装,伪造,做假的行为。” 反过来fictio 则起源于 fingere, “捏造一个故事或编一个借口”。 我们可以在一部写于1412年前后的作品中找到fiction 的第一个例子, 文中所用的意思是“头脑中的虚构,是充满想象的虚构的”。这一意思已经和1599年首次记录的“虚构的文学作品”这层意思相去不远了〔aggress〕Aggress has occasionally been unjustly maligned as an upstart back-formation, that is, as having been created by people who incorrectly thought thataggression was formed from the verb aggress. As used in the field of psychologyaggress may be a back-formation from aggression, butaggress has been in general use since the 16th century and in fact antedates aggression. Aggress 有时被错误地认为是新的逆构词, 也就是说是由那些错误地认为aggression 是从动词 aggress 变来的人创造的。 在心理学领域的用法中,aggress 可能由 aggression 逆构而成, 但是aggress 从16世纪起就已经通用,事实上早于 aggression 的使用 〔economic〕It was no longer economic to keep the manufacturing facilities open.维持生产设备的营运已经不值了〔traveler〕One who travels or has traveled, as to distant places.旅行者:一个旅行或已经旅行过的人,如到遥远的地方〔yes〕The wordyes is a good example of how an ordinary and frequently used word can have a complex etymology. We can traceyes back to two Indo-European roots, .i-, a pronominal stem, and .es-, "to be.” From two extended forms of.i-, .yām and .yāi, came the prehistoric Common Germanic forms.jā and jai, which gave us Old Englishgeā, an affirmative particle, the source of Modern Englishyea. The Indo-European root.es- is the source of our forms am and is. From the stem.sī- used to make verb forms in the optative mood, a mood used to express a wish, came the Germanic form.sijai-, which gave us Old Englishsīe, "may it be so.” This form, unlike the sources ofam and is, died out, but before disappearing it had combined with Old Englishgēa to form the compound gēse, the ancestor of our wordyes. Thissīe was destined to have even more of a triumph. Until around 1600yea was used to respond to positive expressions, whereasyes was used to respond to negative expressions. After that timeyes became a response to both positive and negative expressions, yea surviving primarily in voice votes. yes 一词是说明一个普通常用词如何拥有一复杂词源的极好例证。 我们可以追溯yes 到两个印欧语词根, 代名词词干i- 和 es- “是”。 从i-的两种扩展形式,yam 和 yai, 形成了史前普通日耳曼语形式ja 和 jai, 它们又带来了古英语中的肯定虚词gea , 这便是现代英语yea 的来源。 而印欧语词根es- 是我们 am 和 is 两形式的源头。 以is- ,一个用于制造祈愿语气动词的词干, 产生出日尔曼形式sijai-, 并由此形成了古英语sie, “希望如此”。 这种形式不象am 和 is 的词源,已经灭绝了, 但在消失之前,它已经和古英语gea 混合形成复合词 gese, 即我们的单词yes 的前身。 这个sie 注定要获取更大的胜利。 直至1600年左右,yea 还被用于回答肯定的陈述; 而yes 则用于回答否定陈述。 此后,yes 既可作肯定也可否定表达的回答, yea 则主要在口头投票时使用 〔vision〕Something that is or has been seen.景像:被看见或已经被看到的东西 |
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